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Natrotitanite, ideally (Na0.5Y0.5)Ti(SiO4)O, a new mineral from the Verkhnee Espe deposit, Akjailyautas mountains, Eastern Kazakhstan district, Kazakhstan: description and crystal structure
- A. V. Stepanov, G. K. Bekenova, V. L. Levin, F. C. Hawthorne
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- Journal:
- Mineralogical Magazine / Volume 76 / Issue 1 / February 2012
- Published online by Cambridge University Press:
- 05 July 2018, pp. 37-44
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Natrotitanite, ideally (Na0.5Y0.5)Ti(SiO4)O, is a new mineral from the Verkhnee Espe rare-element deposit at the northern exo-contact of the Akjailyautas granite massif in the northern part of the Tarbagatai mountain range, Eastern Kazakhstan. Both the mineral and the name have been approved by the Commission on New Minerals, Nomenclature and Classification of the International Mineralogical Association (IMA 2010-033). Star-shaped aggregates of small short prisms of yellow or yellowish white (Na,Y,REE)-bearing titanite rimmed by thin (∼2 μm) rims of natrotitanite are embedded in yttrium-bearing fluorite and replace narsarsukite. Associated minerals are microcline, albite, quartz, riebeckite, aegirine, biotite, astrophyllite, rutile, zircon and elpidite. Natrotitanite is milky white to yellowish grey, transparent to translucent, and has a white streak and a vitreous lustre. It shows pale orange cathodoluminescence but does not fluoresce under ultraviolet light. It shows no cleavage or parting, and is brittle; the calculated density is 3.833 g cm–3. The indices of refraction, measured with the Bloss spindle stage for the wavelength 590 nm using a gel filter, are α = 1.904, γ = 2.030, and these values are in accord with the mean refractive index, 1.988, calculated from the Gladstone-Dale relation. Natrotitanite is monoclinic, C2/c, a = 6.5691(2), b = 8.6869(3), c = 7.0924(2) Å, β = 114.1269(4)°, V = 369.4(2) Å3, Z = 4, a:b:c = 0.7562:1: 0.8164. The seven strongest lines in the X-ray powder diffraction pattern [in the order d (Å), I, (hkl)] are as follows: 2.597, 10, (130); 3.248, 8, (11); 2.994, 6, (200); 1.641, 4, (330); 4.941, 3, (110); 1.498, 3, (400); 2.273, 3, (11). Chemical analysis by electron microprobe gave Nb2O5 1.28, SiO2 27.83, TiO2 35.00, SnO2 0.57, V2O3 0.36, Fe2O3 0.23, Y2O3 7.87, Ce2O3 0.83, Sm2O3 0.26, Gd2O3 0.46, Tb2O3 0.17, Dy2O3 2.45, Ho2O3 0.16, Er2O3 2.24, Tm2O3 0.50, Yb2O3 2.53, Nd2O3 0.35, Lu2O3 0.28, MnO 0.33, CaO 8.16, Na2O 5.55, F 1.52 O ≡ F –0.64, sum 98.71 wt.%. The resulting empirical formula is (Na0.39Ca0.32Y0.15Dy0.03Yb0.03Er0.03Ce0.01Ho0.01Tm0.01Gd0.01Nd0.01)Σ1.00(Ti0.95Nb0.02Sn0.01Fe3+0.01Mn0.01V0.01)Σ1.01Si1.01O4.00(O0.83F0.17), calculated on the basis of 3 cations per formula unit. The general formula is written as (Na,Ca,Y,REE)TiSiO4(O,F), and the endmember formula is (Na0.5Y0.5)Ti(SiO4)O.
The crystal structure of a composite optically continuous crystal of natrotitanite and (Na, Y)-bearing titanite was mounted on a Bruker D8 three-circle diffractometer equipped with a rotating anode generator (MoKα radiation), a multi-layer optics incident-beam path and an APEX-II CCD detector. The crystal structure was refined in space group C2/c to a final R1 index of 1.8%. Natrotitanite is isostructural with titanite, (Na + Y + REE) replacing Ca at the Ca site in the titanite structure.
Cámaraite, Ba3NaTi4(Fe2+,Mn)8(Si2O7)4O4(OH,F)7. I. A new Ti-silicate mineral from the Verkhnee Espe Deposit, Akjailyautas Mountains, Kazakhstan
- E. Sokolova, Y. Abdu, F. C. Hawthorne, A. V. Stepanov, G. K. Bekenova, P. E. Kotel’nikov
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- Journal:
- Mineralogical Magazine / Volume 73 / Issue 5 / October 2009
- Published online by Cambridge University Press:
- 05 July 2018, pp. 847-854
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Cámaraite, ideally Ba3NaTi4(Fe2+,Mn)8(Si2O7)4O4(OH,F)7, is a new mineral from the Verkhnee Espe deposit, Akjailyautas Mountains, Kazakhstan. It occurs as intergrowths with bafertisite and jinshajiangite in separate platy crystals up to 8 mm × 15 mm × 2 mm in size, or as star-shaped aggregates of crystals with different orientations. Individual crystals are orange-red to brownish-red, and are platy on {001}. Cámaraite is translucent and has a pale-yellow streak, a vitreous lustre, and does not fluoresce under cathode or ultraviolet light. Cleavage is {001} perfect, no parting was observed, and Mohs hardness is <5; the mineral is brittle. The calculated density is 4.018 g cm-3. In transmitted light, camaraite is strongly pleochroic, X = light brown, Y = reddish-brown, Z = yellow- brown, with Z < X < Y. Cámaraite is biaxial +ve and 2Vmeas. = 93(1)°. All refractive indices are greater than 1.80. Cámaraite is triclinic, space group C, a = 10.678(4) Å, b = 13.744(8) Å, c = 21.40(2) Å, α = 99.28(8)°, β = 92.38(5)°, γ = 90.00(6)°, V = 3096(3) Å3, Z = 4, a:b:c = 0.7761:1:1.5565. The seven strongest lines in the X-ray powder-diffraction pattern are as follows: [d (Å), (I), (hkl)]: 2.63, (100), (401); 2.79, (90), (3, 41, 26, 225); 1.721, (70), (11, 49, 02); 3.39, (50), (24, 223); 3.18, (50), (5, 24); 2.101, (50), (2, 40); 1.578, (50), (1, 2, 61, 40). Chemical analysis by electron microprobe gave: Nb2O5 1.57, SiO2 25.25, TiO2 15.69, ZrO2 0.33, Al2O3 0.13, Fe2O3 2.77, FeO 16.54, MnO 9.46, ZnO 0.12, MgO 0.21, CaO 0.56, BaO 21.11, Na2O 1.41, K2O 0.84, H2O 1.84, F 3.11, less O:F 1.31, total 99.63 wt.%, where the valence state of Fe was determined by Mössbauer spectroscopy [Fe3+/(Fe2+ + Fe3+) = 0.13(8)] and the H2O content was derived by crystal-structure determination. The resulting empirical formula on the basis of 39 anions is Ca0.05)Σ7.78Si7.97O35.89H3.88F3.11. Cámaraite is a Group-II TS-block mineral in the structure hierarchy of Sokolova (2006). The mineral is named camaraite after Fernando Cámaraite (born 1967) of Melilla, Spain, in recognition of his contribution to the fields of mineralogy and crystallography. The new mineral and mineral name have been approved by the Commission on New Minerals, Nomenclature and Classification, International Mineralogical Association (IMA 2009-11).